‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Opens to $161.1 Million

The “Hunger Games” audience grew only a bit in the U.S. the second time on the big screen, but exploded in size overseas.

Sequel “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” opened to $161.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to an estimate from studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. That’s the fourth largest domestic opening of all time, but not much bigger than the original “Hunger Games” in March of 2012, which opened to $152.5 million.

The difference is particularly modest given that the new movie had the advantage of starting screenings at 8 p.m. Thursday, compared to 12 a.m. Friday morning for the original on its first weekend.

The bottom line appears to be that the “Hunger Games” fanbase remains huge, but hasn’t grown significantly in the past year and a half.

Lions Gate got more thrilling news overseas, however, where “Catching Fire” opened to $146.6 million in 63 markets. Many major markets more than doubled the opening gross of “The Hunger Games,” the studio said, including the United Kingdom ($20 million) and Germany ($13 million). Russia, meanwhile, was up an impressive 64% to nearly $11 million.

With $307.7 million worldwide, the film is another huge financial success for Lions Gate, which spent nearly $150 million to make the sequel and has two more follow-ups in the works, both based on the final book in the best-selling “Hunger Games” trilogy.

The weekend’s only other new nationwide release, the offbeat Vince Vaughn comedy “Delivery Man,” couldn’t find its footing in the wake of such a monster hit. It opened to a weak $8.2 million.

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